January 7, 2014 3:53 pm

Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell said Tuesday that he interviewed twice last week for open NFL head coaching positions.

Reportedly, those interviews were with the Washington Redskins and Minnesota Vikings.

“The cool part is it was last week, we’ll all full gameplan mode this week and that’s in the past,” Bevell said “We’re completely focused on New Orleans.”

When asked how the interviews went, Bevell said, “They went fine.”

“It’s better to ask them,” Bevell said with a laugh. “I do what I do, and then whatever they have to say is what they have to say.”

Bevell said interviewing last year helped.

“I think they were great experiences for me last year,” Bevell said. “Just to learn what the interview process is. As I came out of it (though about) things I would have done better, then give it another shot.”

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Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

I can’t say that I’m hugely impressed with Bevell, for the sake of Wilson and the offense’s growth, I’d prefer he not get one of those jobs. I like the consistency of an OC who remains with an offense for a while, especially with a more defense minded HC (presuming he’s effective and an OC which, despite woeful line ply, has been).

I was one of Bevell’s harshest critics through the first half of last season. Before throwing him to the wolves, I think we should take into account Tom Cable’s crappy ZBS, and his even crappier hand-picked O-line, otherwise knows as the PNW Ocean of Suck. Its pretty hard to run an offense with 3 guys who cant block and the other two out/gimpy.

What really upset me this year was the Niners and Cards game. In both games, they had a vanilla gameplan, and seemed to do little adapting. Especially vs the Cards, they just kept trying to get home-run passes and got nowhere all damned day.

I think he’s done a worse job this year at adjusting on the fly, though there were several games he did that very well. Mostly, just as the offensive line has, Bevell’s offense lacked consistency.

Still, I believe we wont know what his offense can do with this team until we get an offensive line that qualifies as decent–not just decent sometimes with Lynch and RW making them look that way, when really they just suck.

Without being on the inside it’s impossible to know how the playcalling is determined. As Dukeshire, and others, constantly point out the O-line is a detriment as well. But it does seem to me that there is something unimaginative, and overly methodical about the Seahawks offensive scheme. Not much pushing of the envelope so far. Maybe Harvin’s return can change all that.

Seattle emphasizes winning the turnover battle. Carroll is not going to go crazy being “creative” and “imaginative” if he doesn’t have to. Doing so increases the risk of turnovers.

If Seattle falls behind by 14 at half, just like they did last year in the playoffs, then they’ll “open it up”, because they have no other choice.

Because Harvin can add an additional explosive element with sheer physical ability (vs. “creativity”) he can potentially open up the offense without incurring added risk. The key word being “potentially”, of course.

Freedom, Have to take exception to the thought that being more creative is necessarily riskier. Fumbles and interceptions happen on “safe” plays also. I’m thinking more in the sequencing of plays and catching the other team by surprise. Less predictability. Breaking up patterns. Getting the other team on their heels and guessing more.

Yes, you cant run on first down all the time, nor pass on third and three every time, nor run after every incompletion…You listening Bevell? If I can figure out what youre gonna do next, the D Damned sure knows!

I think running a conservative gameplan in todays NFL and expecting your players to win most 1 on 1 matchups to bring your “strategy” to success is the real risk; it doesnt work. With the parity in today’s NFL, you have to beat teams that are better than you, and you do that by not standing still and trotting out stale gameplans and playcalls.

Not that Seattle has to go all Denver/NO with their offense. But running a 1982 offense wont cut it game in, game out.

Unfortunately, I’ve been around long enough to see fans call every offensive coach “predictable.” People here were calling Holmgren predictable.

If you are committed to the run and are a run-first offense, you have to run. Remember how earlier in mid-season St. Louis had a putrid run defense and we kept throwing the ball? Basically, if it doesn’t work, the fan calls it “predictable.”

If Seattle had better offensive weapons (WR’s, line) then I too would call for a more balanced offense, but I think the offense right now has taken a significant step back from last year.

The only cure I see for it now is either Harvin really coming on or the offensive line taking a big step forward. With better protection, you might see the TE’s do the stuff they did last year and help stress the opposing defense.

With no running game, Seattle’s play-action staple for passing is neutered. And somehow, I don’t think calling 7 step drops or flea-flickers is going to open anything up. Play-action is just the way the team is set up to go, and it’s not going to change now unless the line gets a whole lot better.

I don’t like lots of bootlegs or rollouts because the field is cut in half, and with mediocre receivers, Seattle needs to use all of the field to isolate passing targets. If Seattle has a good play-action attack, then I like rollouts better.

Word around the locals in MN is that he’s not seriously considered a candidate for the job. Something about the personality of a wet paper bag and 12 men in the huddle (the fault of Childress more than anything) on one of the last plays of the Saints game to help cost them a chance at the Super Bowl a number of years ago when he was the OC.

Freedom, I disagree. Ive been able to guess many of Bevells plays; not only whether run or pass, but what kind of routes and type of run. Ive even called out the exact routes for the WR and TE to my unbelieving family before the play. Theres no way that should happen.

Holmgren WAS conservative, and its one of the signs he was slowing down mentally. It happens to all coaches, they stop innovating and begin repeating past successes and dont understand why it fails.

He also kept the offense on a tight rein for the first four years–he didn trust them to even pee by themselves. And it sucked. Once he trusted his qb and the WR’s then we got the ball rolling. But again in 2007 when everyone could see we couldnt run block but could sure throw the ball, he kept trying to run deep into the middle of the season. Once he let the dogs loose, we began to move the ball like crazy. Had he done it sooner, we’d have had homefield!

Being creative doesnt mean abandoning the run. It means using different blocking schemes in the same game, using a mixed bag of pass routes not just play action chunk play vertical routes all game. I want them to run 30 times a game, just be more varied in what they do/how they do it.

Like the Niners, who always give us fits with 50 different formations and 10 kinds of blocking schemes.

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